Healy lifts Leeds

ITV and Setanta win FA TV rights

Stanley avoid points deduction

—– Northern Ireland hero David Healy transfers his sensational international form to the domestic stage as he lifts Leeds United off the bottom of the Championship with a dramatic last minute winner against his former club Preston North End at Elland Road.
Leeds give their survival hopes a tremendous boost after falling behind to an early North End goal.
While Preston would have moved level with second-in-the-table Birmingham City with a win, Whites boss Dennis Wise hails his matchwinner: “People expect so much of Healy because of what he’s done for Northern Ireland. This is what happens when you score at international level.
“Everyone expects you to do it week in, week out. Unfortunately with us he’s hit crossbars, he’s hit posts.”

—– ITV and Irish satellite broadcaster Setanta secure the rights with the Football Association to screen the FA Cup and England home internationals in a four-year deal from the start of the 2008-09 season.
The £425million deal is a substantial increase from the current £300million rights deal currently held jointly by the BBC and BSkyB.
It’s a major coup for ITV and its new executive chairman Michael Grade who made coverage of live sporting events a priority when he left the BBC to join ITV in December.
Former BSkyB senior executive Trevor East is now Setanta Sports’ director of sport. He also has reasons to be cheerful: “The FA Cup is a great highlight in the English football calendar and an excellent addition to the Setanta line-up.”
A BBC statement reads: “Whenever we bid for a contract, we have to bear in mind the interests of licence-fee payers and we always have to seek value for money.”
There’ll now be no live football on the BBC after the end of next season.
Along with the new Premiership rights, the deal takes the money paid for English football at club and international level to a mind-blowing £3.1billion.

—– Hartlepool United go eight points clear at the top of League Two with a comfortable 3-0 win against Chester City at Victoria Park.
Pool extend their club record unbeaten league run to 23 games.

—– League Two strugglers Accrington Stanley breathe a huge sigh of relief after avoiding a points deduction for fielding ineligible players.
Stanley were charged with fielding two ineligible players - Preston North End striker Chris McGrail and young goalkeeper Martin Fearon - in games in which they won seven points.
They are fined £12,000 by the Football League, with half suspended.
A club statement reads: “We may have been guilty of technicalities that breached regulations. But, we have never sought to cheat or circumvent the rules.”
A seven point deduction would have meant almost certain relegation at the end of their first season back in the Football League.

—– From the ‘Something you thought you’d never hear about a Premiership footballer’ file, Liverpool defender John Arne Riise is declared bankrupt.
The declaration is made by Liverpool County Court for an unpaid debt of around £100,000.
He is involved in a legal battle with his former agent, Einar Baardsen, with the case is reported to be linked to an alleged £3million fraud investigation going through the courts in his native Norway.
Riise is thought to earn around £50,000 a week.